Roman location The church stands on the highest point of the City of London, directly above the foundations of the great London Roman
basilica (built c. AD90–120). The east end of the church, and its high altar, are also positioned above the area where some basilicas of the period had a pagan shrine room (also known as an
aedes). The possible existence of the shrine room is supported by nineteenth-century excavations under Gracechurch Street, immediately adjacent to the church's eastern end. These unearthed an adjoining room covered in yellow panels with a black border, 'with a tessellated floor, suggesting it may have had a higher status than normal, possibly acting as an antechamber for the
aedes or shrine-room'. The alignment of the church is close to the lines of the basilica, being off by just two degrees and it is feasible for the understructure to have utilized the dry solid 2nd-century basilica wall fabric for support. in
Castell Coch, Wales, holding a model of St Peter upon Cornhill. A tradition grew up that the church was founded by
Lucius, the first Christian king in Britain sometime after his conversion in AD 179. He dedicated it to St Peter the Apostle and the church became the seat of an
archbishop until the
coming of the Saxons in the 5th century, after which London was abandoned and
Canterbury became the seat for the 6th-century
Gregorian mission to the
Kingdom of Kent. If St Peter's was built in the Roman era, it would make the church possibly contemporaneous to the Romano-British church at
Silchester, similarly built adjacent to the Roman Basilica and most likely pre-Constantine in age. The London Roman basilica, with most of the forum to the south, is thought to have been largely demolished around AD 300, with building material being removed (possibly for other projects) and the land levelled and eventually covered with a thick layer of dark soil. Whether St Peter's was in existence at this point, and continued to serve as a place of worship, or whether the Lucius story is a fable and the first St Peter's was only established many centuries later may only be determined by future archaeological investigation under the present church. Two other facts however, may give credence to a Roman past. The first is that it is known that London sent a bishop,
Restitutus, to the
Council of Arles in AD 314. Restitutus must have had a church base serving a local christian community. The only other suggested alternative to St Peter's is an enormous aisled building excavated in 1993 near Tower Hill. This however dates to AD 350–400, several decades after Bishop Resitutus. The Tower Hill building was big, and similar in size and lay-out to the 4th-century Cathedral of
St Tecla in Milan, the largest church in the Roman Empire at the time. Although the identity of this building is still subject to speculation, the evidence seems to favour it being a church. Interestingly it was built a few decades after the great Roman Basilica in London was demolished, and was constructed from re-used material, so the defunct Basilica seems an obvious source. Secondly, there are two medieval references to the church having Roman roots in the way that the three other medieval churches also sited on the basilica / forum site did not. A long lost book by
Jocelyn of Furness (1175–1214), cited by
John Stow, and perhaps written just over 150 years after our first known reference to St Peters (1038), states that St Peter's was built by King Lucius. In 1417, the Mayor of London also determined (during a dispute) that St Peter's was the first church founded in London. Given that
St Paul's Cathedral was founded in 604, this clearly implies that Londoners in 1417 considered St Peters to have been founded pre-600. There is, however, some conflicting evidence to the theory that St Peter's was deliberately cited above a pagan shrine room. Current research suggests it very rare for early English Christian churches to be founded in pagan temples, and that when temples were turned into churches, this occurred later, in the late sixth century and onwards. This was also true elsewhere in the Roman Empire; for example in Rome. By this time the former associations of the sites had probably died down. Nonetheless there is precedent for early Christian churches and cathedrals to be built over Roman imperial structures and also on hills and geographic high points. Shortly after the London Basilica was demolished the Emperor
Constantine authorised new major church buildings in Rome including
St John's Lateran on the
Lateran Hill (AD 313) and
Saint Peter's on the
Vatican Hill (AD 318).
King Lucius plaque The London historian
John Stow, writing at the end of the 16th century, reported "there remaineth in this church a table whereon is written, I know not by what authority, but of a late hand, that
King Lucius founded the same church to be an
archbishop's see metropolitan, and chief church of his kingdom, and that it so endured for four hundred years". The "table" (tablet) seen by Stow was destroyed when the medieval church was burnt in the
Great Fire of London, but before this time a number of writers had recorded what it said. The text of the original tablet as printed by
John Weever in 1631 began: Be hit known to al men, that the yeerys of our Lord God an [AD 179].
Lucius the fyrst christen kyng of this lond, then callyd Brytayne, fowndyd the fyrst chyrch in London, that is to sey, the Chyrch of Sent
Peter apon Cornhyl, and he fowndyd ther an Archbishoppys See, and made that Chirch the Metropolitant, and cheef Chirch of this kingdom... A replacement, in the form of an inscribed brass plate, was set up after the Great Fire
Medieval church Regardless of the Lucius connection, St Peter's is clearly one of the earliest churches in London. The date of the medieval church is uncertain but the first definitive reference was around 1038, when
Ælfric II,
bishop of Elmham, left a
messuage (a dwelling with adjacent buildings and land) in his will to "St. Peter binnon Lunden" (St Peter in London). In 1156 it is mentioned in a charter of Henry II. By 1226 it was of sufficient importance to have three chaplains. They were referred to as co-conspirators in the somewhat gruesome murder of a deacon of St Peter's, Amise, who had been stabbed to death by the vicar of St. Paul's, London. A list of vicars in the church records the first known appointment as one John de Cabanicig in 1263, with the patronage being claimed by
Pope Urban IV for 'long voidance'. In 1444 a "
horsemill" was given to St Peter's. The bells of St Peter are mentioned in 1552, when a bell foundry in
Aldgate was asked to cast a new bell.
Medieval school & scriptorium In addition to its early foundation, St Peter's was clearly an important church in London. In 1447 Parliament under Henry VI ordained that it should host one of the four parochial schools in London; the other schools included the cathedral schools of St Paul's and Westminster. It also possessed a fine and ancient library and scriptorium, in use up to circa 1548. Sir John Crosby (died 1475) left money for the repairing of the library in his will. It also contained a manuscript copy of the St. Jerome Vulgate that was written there in 1290. However, this adjoining library 'is no longer extant and its exact location is not certain'. ==Present building==